The New Habsburgs

VIENNA -- Austrian politicians are infamously skeptical about the EU's efforts to open up to the east. Austrian businessmen couldn't be more pleased.

A few days after Vienna assumed the presidency of the EU last month by staking out hawkish views against any more enlargement, particularly to Turkey, Austria's third-largest bank, Erste, joyfully finalized a &euro;73 million purchase of Serbia's largest, Novosadaskabank. That was just the latest in a string of Austrian investments dating back to the fall of communism...